Equation Freak: Exhausted from testing ....Let's make Pi Skylines

Once again, testing season is here.The way we scheduled testing in my building was to take one test per day and then see all of our classes for shortened periods of 30 minutes. We were able to do the paper pencil test this year as our school does not have the infrastructure in place to test the entire school on computers yet. The district I teach in has over 40,000 students so to have computer access for so many students is quite a task to undertake. So after the third of five days of testing, my students didn't want to do anything. They were exhausted and you know how kids are when you change the schedule. That third day was the Friday before Pi Day and we were having our annual Pi Day competition during the lunch periods and they were excited about that. I had all kinds of fun activities planned but the kids were too crazy so I know how to calm them down. We color. Yes, in 8th grade sometimes we color. It always calms them down. I found this activity at What do we do all day on how to make a Pi skyline. This was a perfect activity to help the kids relax and it fit the theme of the day. All you need for this activity is graph paper, rulers, a list of the numbers of Pi and colored pencils. I put on some music and we all just relaxed and colored. Everyone was happy and smiling. What could be better than that and it was a great way to end the week. I love how the pictures turned out and it puts some needed color in my classroom.